MH-FADNAVIS-DEFENCE

PTI
August 10, 2018 17:52 IST

Fadnavis approves land for defence equipment cluster at MIHAN Mumbai, Aug 10 (PTI) The Maharashtra government todayapproved allotment of 20 acres of land at MIHAN SEZ in Nagpurfor setting up a defence equipment manufacturing cluster. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis gave the landallotment approval at the 64th Meeting of the Board ofDirectors of the Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd(MADC) here, a statement from his office said. This initiative will result in creation of 50,000jobs, it said. Fadnavis is also chairman of MADC. The defence equipment manufacturing cluster will offervarious benefits like development of defence ecosystem andfacility for high-end training, said the statement from theChief Minister's Office (CMO). The 20-acre land in Sector 10 of MIHAN SEZ will behanded over to the Vidarbha Defence Industrial Hub for settingup the cluster, it said. The Multi-modal International Cargo Hub and Airport atNagpur (MIHAN) seeks to harness the potential of Nagpur andconvert the present airport into a major cargo hub. A specialeconomic zone (SEZ) is also part of the project. Looking at a large amount of work for various airportsin Maharashtra, Fadnavis also accorded sanction forstrengthening the Urban Planning Department of the MADC. Twenty-one vacancies will to filled for this purpose,it said. Progress on airport projects at Shirdi (Ahmednagardistrict), Purandar (Pune), Belora (Amravati), Chandrapur,Solapur, Shivni (Akola) was reviewed at the meet along withthe Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) of the Union Ministryof Civil Aviation, the statement said. Nanded, Nashik, Jalgaon and Kolhapur airports aregetting good response from passengers, the Chief Minister wasinformed at the meeting, as per the statement. Fadnavis issued directives for starting night landingfacility at the airport in Shirdi, a temple town located 240kmfrom Mumbai that houses the famous Saibaba temple. Since its launch in October last year, the Shirdigreenfield airport has seen operations of 2,000 flightscarrying 50,000 passengers, the statement said. Permission has also been given to appoint aconsultant to prepare layout of the terminal building of theShirdi airport. "In view of a large number of devotees thronging thetemple town and the good response to the air service, therunway (at the Shirdi airport) will be expanded from 2,500metre to 3,200 metre (to accommodate bigger aircraft)," themeeting was told. The Saibaba Sansthan Trust has organised a year-longfestival to mark the centenary year of `mahasamadhi' of therevered saint of Shirdi. A large number of Saibaba devoteesare visiting the temple town during the centenary year. PTI MRRSY RSY RSY